Caught the 5:25pm show of Rock On!! at Adlabs Gold, Pune today. Nice movie. Different from the typical, crappy Bollywood flick (E.g.: Singh is Kinng).

It almost feels like Dil Chahta Hai, Part II. Dil Chahta Hai (DCH) was Farhan Akhtar‘s directorial debut and it is one of my favorite movies. Rock On!! is his debut as an actor. Rock On!!’s theme is similar to DCH, but the storyline is completely different. The acting is top class, especially Purab Kohlic as Killer Drummer (K.D.).

Farhan Akthar has sung all his songs in the movie himself. It’s pretty evident that all the actors have put in a lot of effort to bring a very realistic display of their individual skills as musicians in the movie on to the screen. However, Farhan Aktar’s voice just doesn’t cut it as a rock singer. The voice feels shaky and is not stable or bold enough. But the overall performances by everyone involved more than makes-up for this one ‘drawback’. An impressive movie by Abhishek Kapoor.

At the end of the movie, right before the credits start rolling, they have put up a message: "Do not download songs. Buy CDs instead.". Why not offer people a way to purchase songs online? I don’t like buying CDs. They take up space, are hard to manage and Audio CDs can hold a very limited number of songs. Offer me a way to download songs online — I’ll pay, of course!

BTW, Adlabs Gold charged Rs. 150 for a single ticket. It used to be Rs. 130 just a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if this has something to do with the movie distributor, Anil Ambani’s BIG Cinemas. Come to think of it, Adlabs is part of BIG Cinemas. Anil Ambani is making a killing!